November 17, 2000

Fla. High Court Stops Certification
By David Espo / The Associated Press
Florida's contested presidential election was placed on hold Friday as the state supreme court forbade Secretary of State Katherine Harris from certifying a winner. George W. Bush's lead inched higher as overseas ballots were counted, while Al Gore looked for gains from manual recounts in heavily Democrat counties. In their unanimous late-afternoon order, the justices said they wanted to ``maintain the status quo'' in the state that will settle the race for the presidency. Harris, who had announced plans to certify a winner on Saturday, was told not to act ``until further order'' of the state's highest court. A hearing was set for Monday - a timetable that effectively will permit the manual recounts to grind on in Palm Beach and Broward County, where more than one million ballots are undergoing hand review.

Fla. Supreme Court Halts Certification of Vote
The Associated Press
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- The Florida Supreme Court ruled unanimously on Friday that Secretary of State Katherine Harris may not certify a winner of the state's contested presidential election between George W. Bush and Al Gore "until further order of this court." The court stepped in after Harris announced she intended to certify a winner shortly after noon on Saturday, following the counting of overseas absentee ballots. The justices said they acted "in order to maintain the status quo." They set a hearing for Monday afternoon.

Text of Fla. Supreme Court Decision
Washington Post
"In order to maintain the status quo, the Court, on its own motion, enjoins the Respondent, Secretary of State and Respondent, the Elections Canvassing Commission, from certifying the results of the November 7, 2000 presidential election, until further notice of this Court. It is NOT the intent of this Order to stop the counting and conveying to the Secretary of State the results of absentee ballots or any other ballots."

Florida Can Reject Late Votes
By Anne Gearan / The Associated Press
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- A Florida judge said Friday that Secretary of State Katherine Harris is acting within her authority in refusing to accept hand-counted presidential votes tallied after last Tuesday in the crucial state. Al Gore, counting on those recounts, prepared an appeal. The Democrats have contended that Harris acted arbitrarily in deciding to ignore revised counts from several counties. But Judge Terry Lewis said in a brief ruling, "I disagree." "Florida law grants to the secretary, as the chief elections officer, broad discretionary authority to accept or reject late filed returns," Lewis said. In a written reaction, Harris said she was pleased by the ruling.

Gore Campaign To Appeal Decision
By Anne Gearan / The Associated Press
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- A Florida judge ruled Friday that the state's top election official, a Republican, acted properly in refusing to accept any hand-counted ballots submitted late. With the presidency at stake, Al Gore's campaign said it would appeal to the Florida Supreme Court. The judge ruled that Secretary of State Katherine Harris acted within her authority in refusing to accept hand-counted presidential votes tallied after last Tuesday in the crucial state. The Democrats have contended that Harris acted arbitrarily in deciding to ignore revised counts from several counties after a Tuesday deadline. But Judge Terry Lewis said in a brief ruling, "I disagree." "Florida law grants to the secretary, as the chief elections officer, broad discretionary authority to accept or reject late filed returns," Lewis said.

Fla. Skirmish Over Overseas Ballots
By Brent Kallestad / The Associated Press
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- This time, the battle is over postmarks, not chad. Florida's 67 counties counted crucial overseas ballots on Friday, and advocates for both George W. Bush and Al Gore immediately raised challenges. Some votes were thrown out. "We had a lot of ballots with no postmarks so we had to declare them invalid," said Dick Carlberg, assistant elections supervisor in Duval County.

Earlier News Stories...

Florida Court: Recount Can Continue
By Anne Gearan / The Associated Press
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- Florida's high court gave the go-ahead to manual ballot recounts in the state's disputed presidential election Thursday but left unanswered the question of whether the results could help determine the winner of the statewide vote – and with it the presidency. "There is no legal impediment to the recounts continuing," the court said in a case brought by Palm Beach County. Judge Charles Burton, a member of the Palm Beach County canvassing board, told a news conference the state's high court did not appear to have ruled on the underlying question of whether the results of the handcounts must be rolled into the official vote totals.

A Look At The Florida Supreme Court

Last Chance As Gore Tries To Halt Florida Verdict
By Toby Harnden And Ben Fenton / Electronic Telegraph
With George W Bush narrowly ahead in the vote count, Al Gore last night returned to the courts in a final attempt to stop authorities in Florida declaring a winner tomorrow. Katherine Harris, the Florida Secretary of State and a Republican, is due tomorrow evening to certify the final Florida result which will confirm the winner of the race for the White House. Last night, Mr Bush led by 300 votes out of some six million cast, and his lead was expected to widen when some 2,500 plus overseas votes were tallied.

Baker: Fla. Ruling Keeps Status Quo
By Anne Gearan / The Associated Press
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) - Republicans called the decision minor. "The one-paragraph, interim order of the Florida Supreme Court has just been presented to you as the best thing since night baseball," said Bush's recount manager, former Secretary of State James A. Baker III. He said, in fact, the order "does nothing more than preserve the status quo."

Appeals Court Moves Quickly on Brevard County, Falwell Suit
NewsMax.com
On Wednesday, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta agreed to expedite an appeal filed by three residents of Brevard County, Fla., who claim the hand counting of ballots in select Florida counties - all of which have canvassing boards controlled by Democrats - is unconstitutional. The suit of the Florida residents has gotten little press notice, but is apparently being taken more seriously by the federal appeals court than a similar appeal made by the Bush campaign this week. The appeal asks the court to immediately halt the manual recounts of ballots arguing the selective recounting undermines the constitutional right of all citizens to have their votes count equally. The federal appeals court has moved quickly to make a judgement on the case.

Public Sees Saturday As End Of Battle
By Donald Lambro / The Washington Times
Florida voters are willing to wait until tomorrow for the results of the election, but a strong national plurality now thinks that Texas Gov. George W. Bush will be the next president, new polls show.

Court Fight 'American Way,' Says Lieberman
By Andrew Cain / The Washington Times
Vice President Al Gore's running mate said yesterday the pair will not concede even if Texas Gov. George W. Bush leads after overseas ballots are counted in Florida and will continue to fight in court because that is "the American way."

Miami-Dade Reconsiders Full Recount
By Catherine Wilson / The Associated Press
MIAMI -- Miami-Dade County may jump into the presidential recount again Friday when its canvassing board reconsiders a Democrat request for a hand count of presidential ballots. The panel previously rejected the request on a 2-1 vote.

Democrat Election Official Manipulated Ballots, Witnesses Swear
NewsMax.com
Carol Roberts, the fiercely partisan Palm Beach Democrat county commissioner, deliberately mishandled ballots to give Al Gore a boost in the hand recount, five different witnesses swore in affidavits filed with a federal court.

'Contraband' Chad Found in Broward
By Alan Clendenning / The Associated Press
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- Chads: Votes or trash? When the Broward County canvassing board showed up for work Thursday morning, waiting on its table was a manila police envelope emblazoned with the words: "Crime. Found Property." Inside: 78 "chads." The chads, bits of paper punched out of a ballot when a vote is cast, were found on the floor in the room where a hand recount of presidential ballots began Wednesday.

Florida To Count Overseas Ballots
By Rachel La Corte / The Associated Press
MIAMI -- Florida officials count more than 2,500 overseas absentee ballots on Friday, a mere handful of votes out of 6 million cast statewide that could be decisive in settling the presidential election between Al Gore and George W. Bush. To erase Bush's current 300-vote margin, Gore would have to win about 56 percent of these absentee votes that have tilted Republican since 1980.

Military Didn't Get Ballots, Plan Class-Action Suit
David M. Bresnahan / NewsMax.com
SAN ANTONIO, Texas -- Attorneys for disenfranchised military personnel plan to ask a judge to either let them vote late or allow them to refuse to pay taxes for the next four years. Large numbers of military personnel have complained that they did not receive absentee ballots in time to vote, and now they are taking action in court.

Class Action Lawsuit to be Filed for Military Personnel
Keep And Bear Arms
KeepAndBearArms.com -- If you serve in any of the armed forces for the United States of America, and if you were not provided access to voting in the 2000 Presidential election, [you can] fax and email your story (the facts) to The Law Firm of Campbell & Jones in San Antonio, Texas.

Congress May Have Role in Election
By Alan Fram / The Associated Press
WASHINGTON -- Republican and Democrat leaders prepared Thursday for the possibility that Congress might elect the next president, though members of both parties said they considered that unlikely. Among the possibilities: A process, spelled out in a 19th century law, by which Congress might annul Florida's contested electoral votes.

Congress Gets A Reminder On Electoral Role
By Alison Mitchell / New York Times News Service
WASHINGTON -- Rep. Tom DeLay, the Republican leader who drove the House forward to impeachment, has sent a staff memo to congressional Republicans pointing out that the House and Senate can reject a state's electoral votes if they decide the votes are tainted. DeLay, a Texan who is the House majority whip, had his aides distribute the two-page e-mail memo in recent days. It sets out the Congress' role in tallying and certifying electoral votes and the circumstances that could lead to the House itself choosing the president.

Milwaukee Smokes-For-Votes Claims
Involve As Many As 25 Homeless Men
Scripps Howard News Service
MILWAUKEE -- The investigation into smokes-for-votes allegations in Milwaukee involved at most 25 homeless men, Milwaukee County Deputy District Attorney Bob Donahoo says. Donahoo said an ongoing investigation has found that 15 to 25 homeless men may have been recruited to cast absentee ballots at Milwaukee City Hall the Saturday before the election.

Presidential Transition Shrinking
By Nancy Benac / The Associated Press
WASHINGTON -- The normal presidential transition period is short enough – 73 days – and now a sizable slice of that valuable time to set the tone and framework for the next presidency is forever lost.

House GOP Miffed at Networks
By Jim Abrams / The Associated Press
WASHINGTON -- House Republicans on Thursday accused the television networks of being biased toward Vice President Al Gore in their election-night winner calls. They said early calls for Gore could have affected the outcome in Florida and discouraged Republican voters in other parts of the country.

Flubs Put Spotlight On How Networks Call Elections
By David Bauder / AP Television Writer
NEW YORK (AP) - Formed to help TV networks quickly report and explain election results, Voter News Service now stands at the center of one of television's most embarrassing moments in years. The little-known company that provides news organizations with exit poll information and election returns is being scrutinized after the networks' double-barreled mistake in the presidential race: prematurely declaring Al Gore the winner in Florida and then George W. Bush several hours later. Fox News Channel founder and CEO Roger Ailes has already said he wants to replace the consortium set up by ABC, CBS, CNN, Fox, NBC and The Associated Press with more than one service. ``As far as I'm concerned, CBS anchor Dan Rather said to radio commentator Don Imus about VNS, ``we have to knock it down to absolute ground zero, plow it under with salt, put a barbed-wire fence around it, quarantine it for a few years and start off with something new.''

Hill To Probe Media's Effect On Election
By Audrey Hudson / The Washington Times
Republican lawmakers said yesterday they will investigate whether news-media projections that Vice President Al Gore won Florida deprived Gov. George W. Bush of votes and disenfranchised voters. The congressmen were mainly concerned with the projections' effect in the Florida Panhandle. Voting behavior there from 1988 to 2000 shows the Republican vote rate was 4 percent lower than expected last week, according to an analysis by Yale University Law School senior research scholar John R. Lott Jr.

Why the Fla. Supremes Will Likely Vote For Bush
By Jack Thompson / NewsMax.com
One of history's lessons is that those who have immense power best preserve it when they refrain from its use. Relatedly, its precipitous, unnecessary use is the best way to lose it. That is why the Florida Supreme Court most likely will not use its incredible power to determine the next president of the United States by labeling "arbitary" the discretion of Secretary of State Katherine Harris in certifying the vote. These jurists want to preserve their monarchical power to use another day, in far less visible but just as damaging ways.

The Donkey In The Living Room
By Peggy Noonan / OpinionJournal.com
You know what the donkey is. The donkey is the explicit fear, grounded in fact, in anecdotal evidence, in the affidavits of on-the-ground participants, and in the history of some of the participants, that the Gore-Clinton Democrat party is trying to steal the election. Not to resolve it--to steal it. That is, they are not using hand-counting to determine who won, they are using hand-counting to win.

Electoral College Always Passes The Test Of Time
By David Brudnoy / The Boston Herald
Shooting the messenger, the Electoral College system, is in these days. The newly elected senator from New York, Hillary Clinton, ready to start running our lives, has already called for abolishing the system. Let the people rule, says she, becoming the zillionth person seeking to abandon what has withstood efforts to abolish it throughout its 211-year existence.

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